Dwayne Polee II is a 6-foot-7 sophomore forward at San Diego State, and on Saturday the 18th-ranked Aztecs open the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu against the University of San Francisco, where his father, Dwayne Polee Sr., is the director of player development.

It closes a circle, bringing a basketball family a full 360 degrees. Or it is 720?

Polee Sr. is a Los Angeles high school legend, scoring 43 points in the 1981 city championship for Manual Arts High and being named L.A. player of the year. He spent a season at UNLV, transferred to Pepperdine and twice was conference player of the year, was drafted in the third round by the Los Angeles Clippers, spent a few years playing professionally in the Philippines, Spain and Italy, then began a coaching career.

Polee II was the Los Angeles player of the year in 2010, went to St. John’s for a season and transferred to SDSU.

Like father, like son.

Or not.

This will be the first time they have been on opposite benches, or even the same one – the first time a long, illustrious basketball career has brought Polee Sr. onto the same court as his talented son. Assumptions can be a dangerous thing, though. Just because his father was a basketball star and his uncle, Larry Kenon, played 10 seasons in the ABA and NBA, didn’t mean he did, too.

He wanted to spin and soar and awe.

“Dwayne wanted to be a skateboarder,” Polee Sr. says. “I’m telling you, he wanted to be Tony Hawk. That was his guy, Tony Hawk.”

The amateur psychologist will pontificate about the kid forging his own identity, trying to flee his father’s shadow, asserting his independence by unshackling his destiny. It probably wasn’t that complicated. He was born toward the end of his father’s overseas career and never saw him play, even as an infant.

His mother, Yolanda, bought him a skateboard. He rode it. He liked it. Soon, he had three. Soon, there were ramps in the backyard. Soon, he was going to Venice Beach for competitions.

His signature move: a kick flip.

“Was I frustrated? You know I was. His mom wasn’t but I was,” says Polee Sr., 49. “We didn’t ride skateboards when I grew up. We went outside and played basketball and football. I never rode a skateboard, but I tell you, Dwayne loved it.”

His mother or father didn’t ultimately push him to basketball in 7th grade. Mother Nature did. He started getting growing pains in his knees, and the laws of physics on a wooden board with wheels favor a lower center of gravity. A friend suggested he join his basketball team. He shrugged and figured why not; a year later he was dunking.

They would become only the second father-son duo to win the L.A. city player of the year (Marques and Kris Johnson were the first), Polee Sr. at Manual Arts, Polee II on a Westchester team that won the state championship and put six players into NCAA Division I programs.